How We Met

Costa Rica - 2012

Sadly, Kelly and Beau can’t actually remember meeting. We know it happened sometime during our freshmen year at UW-Madison where we both lived in Cole Hall, and we can only assume that we were introduced by our mutual friends Alex Wong or Kirtan Gandhi. But darn it, we just don’t know.

After our freshmen year, where we were left with a vague but positive outlook on the other person, we thought 'well, that was nice. I wish them well, but I’m clearly never going to see them again.’ Or at least that is what we would have thought, had we thought at all about the other person – which sadly, we did not. However, fate had a tricky way of continuing to stick the two of them together. For instance, they would see each other at parties when Kelly’s friends, and Beau’s roomates, Alex and Gandhi would host a party at their apartment. They also saw each other when Bob Dankert and Erin Wicke hosted their 2004 Presidential Election debate viewing parties. But again, that was about it.

Fast forward a good eight years from that initial meeting to October 3, 2009 when Bob and Wicke got hitched, and Kelly and Beau actually remember meeting. Making up for lost time, Kelly remembers it vividly. It occurred in the Lutheran Memorial Church in Madison, WI when Kelly recognized Beau about to obliviously breeze past her, and Kelly said “Beau?!...Hi!”. They hugged hello.

So Wicke and Bob's wedding was a blast, and in an ironic twist of fate – Beau was the one encouraging Kelly to dance more. It was awesome. So despite the fact that Kelly was living in Minneapolis at the time, and despite the fact that the two barely knew each other, and despite the fact that Kelly was crazy busy with graduate school and Beau was overworked at Envision, and whatever else… it was clear that there might be something there. Plus, we had mutual friends so we knew the other person wasn’t a complete psycho. And so commenced a year-long long-distance dating relationship that ended once Kelly obtained a full-time job in Madison, and took the leap to move to Madison to see if we had a shot. BEST DECISION EVER!!!

How we got engaged

On Saturday, December 10, 2011, Beau and Kelly began the day lazily couch-surfing. Kelly asked Beau what we should do that day, and Beau casually mentioned that he had arranged for Scott Lysne, his friend and business partner, to take us for a plane ride that day. Kelly gets mildly ticked-off. Why? Because the same question had been asked the previous evening, and Kelly had been told that there were no plans for the weekend. But despite the slight deception, Kelly put on her big girl panties, overcame her discomfort with flying, and up we went.

It was a beautiful winter day, and the plane ride was lovely. A few minutes in, Scott casually asks, “Hey Beau – we’re over Cambridge. Don’t your parents live around here?” The plane then proceeded to bank sharply left over the Smithback house and Kelly is incredibly excited – she wanted Beau to call his parents to tell them we’re the plane over their house! How cool! But Beau is acting funny – he’s not even looking out the window. Then Kelly notices a sign in the yard spelling out “Kelly – marry me?”. Then a ring appears. Oh. My. God.

About twenty minutes later, Kelly regained the ability to speak, and was able to finally tell Beau “of course”. The plane proceeds to the American Inn in Kohler, Wisconsin where we spent a lovely weekend celebrating.